NCIPD Meeting
A regular meeting of the National Council for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities (NCIPD) to the Council of Ministers was held at the MLSP on 14 September 2017, chaired by Minister of Labour and Social Policy Biser Petkov, and attended by Deputy Ministers Zornitsa Rusinova and Rositsa Dimitrova, and others.
The main items on the agenda were the amendments and supplements to the Law on the Integration of People with Disabilities, the amendments to its Implementing Rules, and the proposed new social needs assessment method in compliance with Act. 12, para. 1 of the Law on the Integration of People with Disabilities, as well as the amendments to the Ordinance on the Conditions and the Procedure for Implementing the Measures for Providing Assistive Devices and the addition of new suggestions to the lists of assistive devices.
During the meeting the national disability-related organisations expressed their concern and disagreement on making partial amendments to the normative documents and put forward a proposal for their postponement, an opinion they had held before the event. They pointed out that disability issues were much deeper and more complex and there was a need for radical legislative changes. It was noted that such changes should also be in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
It was clarified that the Council of Ministers decided to make partial amendments to reduce the administrative burden, which in turns required that changes should be introduced to reduce the documentation necessary for providing aids and support for people with disabilities. For that reason, the proposed amendments made provisions for the Agency for Social Assistance and the Agency for People with Disabilities to acquire more rights and opportunities to obtain the documents necessary for providing support for persons with disabilities.
The national disability-related organisations expressed their concern that by reducing bureaucracy the proposed amendments would give the state administration unlimited powers, which could result in administrative arbitrariness.
On behalf of NASO members Georgi Georgiev, NASO President, welcomed the efforts to reduce the administrative burden of providing services for persons with disabilities, but he disagreed with the rapid change in the normative documents. He told about disagreements among the families of persons with disabilities and their organisations as to partial and hasty amendments that did not meet the considerable need for radical changes to the regulatory framework on disability to improve service quality and carry out effective actions for social and labour-market integration of people with disabilities.
Giving more powers to the state institutions will favour the administrative approach to working with people with disabilities, and this will not produce the desired social effect, said Mr Georgiev.
He expressed hope that the need for considerable legislative changes to disability-related laws would soon be addressed to bolster the provision of more adequate and effective support for integration of persons with disabilities and their independent living.
It was decided that the proposed changes should be supplemented with texts submitted by the national disability-related organisations. The changes are aiming to amend disability-related laws in order to reduce the administrative burden on citizens, for that reason the short deadlines have been set for proposing and discussing the amendments.
It was also decided to add new assistive devices to the existing list in compliance with Art. 35d, para. 1 of the Law on the Integration of People with Disabilities. The NASO members can send their proposals for supplementing the list of assistive devices to NASO by 20 September to be submitted to the MLSP.
The National Alliance is grateful to its members for offering specific suggestions concerning the proposed amendments to the regulatory framework on disability. NASO has undertaken to include them in future detailed discussions and amendments to disability-related laws and regulations. There was no possibility of including them in this meeting as it was aimed at discussing changes reducing the administrative burden on citizens.
The recommendations and comments on the normative documents submitted by NASO members were included as part of Mr Georgiev’s argument about the need for a systematic approach and a comprehensive and holistic view on changes to disability-related laws.
On behalf of the national disability-related organisations a new vice chair of the National Council was elected because the term of the previous one, Ms Veska Sabeva, Chair of the Association of Parents of Children with Epilepsy, expired. In her place Ms Adriana Stoimenova Stefanova, Executive Director of the Centre for Psychological Research, was elected Vice Chair.
A regular meeting of the National Council for the Integration of Persons with Disabilities (NCIPD) to the Council of Ministers was held at the MLSP on 14 September 2017, chaired by Minister of Labour and Social Policy Biser Petkov, and attended by Deputy Ministers Zornitsa Rusinova and Rositsa Dimitrova, and others.
The main items on the agenda were the amendments and supplements to the Law on the Integration of People with Disabilities, the amendments to its Implementing Rules, and the proposed new social needs assessment method in compliance with Act. 12, para. 1 of the Law on the Integration of People with Disabilities, as well as the amendments to the Ordinance on the Conditions and the Procedure for Implementing the Measures for Providing Assistive Devices and the addition of new suggestions to the lists of assistive devices.
During the meeting the national disability-related organisations expressed their concern and disagreement on making partial amendments to the normative documents and put forward a proposal for their postponement, an opinion they had held before the event. They pointed out that disability issues were much deeper and more complex and there was a need for radical legislative changes. It was noted that such changes should also be in line with the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
It was clarified that the Council of Ministers decided to make partial amendments to reduce the administrative burden, which in turns required that changes should be introduced to reduce the documentation necessary for providing aids and support for people with disabilities. For that reason, the proposed amendments made provisions for the Agency for Social Assistance and the Agency for People with Disabilities to acquire more rights and opportunities to obtain the documents necessary for providing support for persons with disabilities.
The national disability-related organisations expressed their concern that by reducing bureaucracy the proposed amendments would give the state administration unlimited powers, which could result in administrative arbitrariness.
On behalf of NASO members Georgi Georgiev, NASO President, welcomed the efforts to reduce the administrative burden of providing services for persons with disabilities, but he disagreed with the rapid change in the normative documents. He told about disagreements among the families of persons with disabilities and their organisations as to partial and hasty amendments that did not meet the considerable need for radical changes to the regulatory framework on disability to improve service quality and carry out effective actions for social and labour-market integration of people with disabilities.
Giving more powers to the state institutions will favour the administrative approach to working with people with disabilities, and this will not produce the desired social effect, said Mr Georgiev.
He expressed hope that the need for considerable legislative changes to disability-related laws would soon be addressed to bolster the provision of more adequate and effective support for integration of persons with disabilities and their independent living.
It was decided that the proposed changes should be supplemented with texts submitted by the national disability-related organisations. The changes are aiming to amend disability-related laws in order to reduce the administrative burden on citizens, for that reason the short deadlines have been set for proposing and discussing the amendments.
It was also decided to add new assistive devices to the existing list in compliance with Art. 35d, para. 1 of the Law on the Integration of People with Disabilities. The NASO members can send their proposals for supplementing the list of assistive devices to NASO by 20 September to be submitted to the MLSP.
The National Alliance is grateful to its members for offering specific suggestions concerning the proposed amendments to the regulatory framework on disability. NASO has undertaken to include them in future detailed discussions and amendments to disability-related laws and regulations. There was no possibility of including them in this meeting as it was aimed at discussing changes reducing the administrative burden on citizens.
The recommendations and comments on the normative documents submitted by NASO members were included as part of Mr Georgiev’s argument about the need for a systematic approach and a comprehensive and holistic view on changes to disability-related laws.
On behalf of the national disability-related organisations a new vice chair of the National Council was elected because the term of the previous one, Ms Veska Sabeva, Chair of the Association of Parents of Children with Epilepsy, expired. In her place Ms Adriana Stoimenova Stefanova, Executive Director of the Centre for Psychological Research, was elected Vice Chair.



































































Calendar
Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat | Sun |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1
> |
2
> |
3
> | ||||
4
> |
5
> |
6
> |
7
> |
8
> |
9
> |
10
> |
11
> |
12
> |
13
> |
14
> |
15
> |
16
> |
17
> |
18
> |
19
> |
20
> |
21
> |
22
> |
23
> |
24
> |
25
> |
26
> |
27
> |
28
> |
29
> |
30
> |
31
> |